


tomorrow’s sunset

by stardustgirl



Series: Rebels Oneshots [89]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Children, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Goodbye Video, Implied/Referenced Character Death, In Case of Death Video, Jedi Holocron, The Force, Toddlers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21624418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: A toddler Jacen finds Kanan’s contingency video.
Relationships: Kanan Jarrus & Jacen Syndulla
Series: Rebels Oneshots [89]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1150541
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	tomorrow’s sunset

**Author's Note:**

> Just finished rewatching Endgame and Tony’s video hurt me so now I’m hurting all of you.
> 
> TW: Implied Character Death, Implied Death of Parent

Jacen stumbles backwards, falling with a wide-eyed blink as the blue cube floats out of his hands and into the air. “Block! Block!” he exclaims, pushing himself to his feet and moving to grab it.

Instead, however, the cube only rises as the corners rotate, and with a flicker, a hologram starts playing on the wall next to the bunk.

“_Hey, I uh, hope whoever’s watching this is well—unless you’re not my kid or Ezra’s kid or Sabine’s kid, in which case you can go kri—do something else._” He blinks, looking up at the hologram before sitting on the floor. It’s a bearded man he vaguely recognizes, though he doesn’t remember where from.

“_This recording is just for my kid, or Ezra’s kid or Sabine’s kid, like I said. And, in all honesty, I...hope you guys won’t have to ever see this. I’m planning to delete this, at the end of the war—I told Ezra to delete it at the end, too, just in case I don’t...I don’t make it out._” The man in the hologram sighs, running a hand over his face—and, Jacen notices, over a long scar across his eyes.

“_Uh, I’ll get down to business. So, ah, kid. I don’t know your name, and I’m not gonna go around the _ Ghost _ asking my family what they’d name their kids._” He breaks into a brief laugh, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling. “_But I’m Kanan. Kanan Jarrus. Spectre One. You might know me as Grandpa, I dunno. Or as—_“

“Daddy!” he yells, standing again. Jacen runs to the hologram, jumping up and down and giggling as he tries to grab the man’s hand through it. He frowns, sitting down again when he can’t.

“_But whatever you know me as, even though I dunno who’ll be watching this, I love you. I _ do _ want you to know that, okay? Hera, if you’re watching this, I am so, _ so _ sorry I didn’t make it out. That _ Ezra _ didn’t make it out. I’m sorry. And Ezra, the same to you—I don’t want you to see this, ever. I don’t want _ anyone _ to, but if you’re watching this, there’s probably a reason why. Sabine, if you’re seeing this somehow, and Ezra’s still alive, find him and get him to turn this thing off and delete it, please. I don’t want you watching it, either._” Dad sighs again, blinking, and Jacen absently wonders where his scar came from. “ _But _ someone’s _ probably watching this, so they deserve an explanation. That’s not what this is for, in all honesty, so I’m just gonna say how I feel and hope that’s all right. _

“_Kid, whoever’s kid you are, I love you. I love you so _ so _ much, so much that I decided to fight in a war for you before I even knew you were gonna be born. If you’re watching this, somehow you’ve figured out how to open this, which either means you’ve got the Force or Ezra didn’t follow my instructions. If you’ve got the Force, I sincerely hope you’ve got a teacher. There’s some training holovids inside of here that’ll be good for you to watch once you get your lightsaber, and before you do, you can practice meditating—there’s another holovid Ezra and I made about a year ago that should be in here. Watch those, okay? And _ listen _ to ‘em. Sure, Ezra didn’t at first, and he turned out okay, but we can’t all be Ezras._” Dad laughs at that, so Jacen laughs, too. “ _ But more importantly, I just want you to know that I am _ so _ proud of you. Sure, I love you and I want you to be great with the Force and all that—hey, I know not everyone wants to be a Jedi, and that’s okay—but I’m also just kri– kark—_karabast, I can’t talk to kids—_I’m just _ really _ proud of you, alright? And I know life gets hard. It’s hard for us, right now, in the war. Honestly, sometimes I’m not sure if we’re gonna win. There’s days, back with the Inquisitors and Maul and even now, where I wonder if we’ll all make it out alive. And I really, _ really _ hope we do, because that means you won’t have to watch this and I can just hug you and tell you goodnight from Grandpa or from Dad or whatever, and then everything’s gonna be just fine and we can go play dejarik or something, and you can go to bed without wondering if you’ll see the sunset tomorrow—_“

Dad breaks off without warning, running a shaky hand over his face again. Jacen tilts his head in concern. “Daddy?” A moment later, Dad seemingly returns to normal, smiling at the holocam once more.

“_Anyway, just...just know that I love you and I’m so proud of you and I miss you, okay? I miss you without even knowing you. I—_“

He turns to look at something Jacen can’t see so Jacen turns, too, cocking his head again when he sees that Dad’s gaze has fallen on the door. “Daddy, there’s nobody there.”

However, in the holovid, Jacen can hear a faint, “_Kriff you, Chopper, get back here with my lightsaber—!_” and the chortling of a familiar droid. He claps his hands, giggling.

“Chopper!”

He gets to his feet and stumbles out of the room, giggling as he searches for Chopper.

Meanwhile, the holovid continues.

“_I gotta go, kid, but just know that...that I care about you, yeah? May the Force be with you. Always._” He reaches for the holocam to turn it off and after a moment, the video freezes.


End file.
